


i am so proud of you

by orphan_account



Series: tumblr requests! [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Compliant, Coming Out, Eleven | Jane Hopper-centric, F/M, Getting Together, Hugs, Love Letters, M/M, Max is trying, Mike is a disaster, Secret Admirer, and hopper is her dad fight me, chapter 2 is fluff to make up for the angst, it made me cry while writing so, jonathan is a good older brother, joyce is el's maternal figure, well sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:01:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25617775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: el is learning what family means
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Jonathan Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Joyce Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, Maxine "Max" Mayfield & Mike Wheeler, Will Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Series: tumblr requests! [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782133
Comments: 10
Kudos: 36





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so, the winter part is post s1, spring part is post s2 and summer and fall are both post s3

It’s winter and Eleven has never been so cold. She stands alone in the snow and she imagines that someday, she might be able to smile again. But, she has been running for so long and her fingers are frozen and she has almost forgotten what her friends’ faces look like, so she feels empty. 

Eleven doesn’t want to feel alone anymore, but she always does. 

Sometimes, she dreams about Dustin’s toothy grin and Lucas’s belly laugh and Mike’s voice, but when she wakes up, they’re not there anymore and it hurts in her heart. She doesn’t know the word for this and she has no one to ask. 

She walks through the forest and she touches the trees and she pretends that they are people saying, “I am so proud of you. You are so brave” like that nice woman the night when she went into the bathtub at Mike’s school. But, they are just trees when she opens her eyes and she wants to cry, but it is too cold and the tears hurt. 

Eleven hears footsteps in the distance and she tenses, bracing herself to run. 

But, then a voice comes through the trees saying, “Hey, kid, it’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you.” 

So, she looks up and she sees a man she recognizes holding out food and she is so hungry, so she runs towards him and she wonders if maybe she could hug him, because she would like to feel warm again. 

Eleven doesn’t. She just wants to. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s spring and Eleven is laughing so hard that she can’t breathe. 

Hopper is dancing around the room and singing along to music she doesn’t recognize, but Joyce is smiling and Will is beaming and even Jonathan is chuckling and she feels home. 

“Hop!” Joyce says, “Please, my eyes are bleeding.” 

“You can’t stand to be around this pure talent,” he shouts back and Eleven nearly doubles over with laughter. 

Will shoots her a smile that says he understands and then he whispers, “Grown-ups are so weird.” 

“Yes,” she agrees and she isn’t quite sure what that means, but it sounds right. 

Later, when she and Hopper are heading home together, he reaches over to ruffle her hair and says, “I’m proud of you, kiddo.” 

She wants to laugh again, but instead, she just nods and smiles as wide as she can. 

He opens the door to the cabin. 

“Good night, El,” Hopper tells her. 

“Good night,” she replies and turns to walk into her room. But, she changes her mind, turns back around and throw her arms around him. He hugs her back after a moment and she squeezes as tightly as she can before letting go. 

“I love you,” Eleven says because that is how she feels. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is summer and Eleven wishes she could stop feeling, but everything hurts so much. 

Will tells her that it’s normal, that this is the way people feel when someone they love passes away, but she doesn’t want it. Every time she breathes, she has to remind herself not to cry and the world is too loud and too big and it moves too fast, like it doesn’t even remember that Hopper was here. And he’s not anymore. 

“Everything alright, El?” Jonathan asks her one day when Mike, Max, Lucas and Dustin try to come over, but she doesn’t talk to them. 

“No,” she whispers and then the tears start coming again and she can’t find her way back. 

He puts his arms around her and shakes with her while she sobs before saying, “You know, when Will... when he went into the Upside Down, we all thought he was dead and I... I cried so much that sometimes, I felt empty. But, you have to keep going because that’s just what you do.” 

“But, what if I can’t?” 

“El, you are one of the bravest people that I know,” Jonathan says and she wants to tell him that she wishes it were true, but it’s not because if she were brave, she would’ve found a way to save Hopper and she didn’t and now, he’s gone and it’s her fault. 

Instead, she just says, “I miss him so much. It’s... it hurts.” 

“I’m so proud of you,” he replies and she cries harder. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s fall and Eleven has been trying to be ok for a while now. 

She keeps the letter that Hopper wrote her in a drawer in her room and she reads it every night, until she has it memorized and then she whispers it to herself like the bedtime stories he used to tell her. 

One night, Will comes into her room and sits on the edge of her bed. 

“Can I tell you something?” he asks and his voice shakes. 

“Yes,” she replies. 

“I think I’m... well, I know that I’m in love with Mike and I...” 

“Ok,” Eleven says and smiles at him. 

“You know, guys aren’t supposed to...” Will trails off. 

“Yes, but you’re my brother and I love you, so it doesn’t matter.” 

Then, Will starts crying and she realizes that it’s the first time she’s said either of those things, so she starts crying too. 

The next morning, there is a knock on the door and Joyce runs at it, muttering something about how, “Murray better have a good excuse for showing up here at the...” 

Eleven hears Joyce’s scream (but a happy one). 

She walks out of her room to see what is happening and she freezes because standing in the doorway is Hopper and he is smiling and Joyce is laughing and they are talking about Russians and prisons and she is completely frozen until he looks at her. 

“Hey, kiddo,” he says and Eleven runs straight at him, throwing herself into his arms and there are tears on her cheeks, that she did not realize she was crying. 

“I missed you,” she says and her feet are dangling off the ground and she is holding him like he is about to leave again. 

“I’m not going anywhere if I can help it,” Hopper replies and she smiles so wide that she thinks her face might rip in half. 

It is fall and Eleven is happy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a little bonus byler for you guys <3

Mike paces back and forth, replaying what he’s going to say to Will in his head. 

When Dustin told him to write a love letter, he figured it would be like in the movies and that he’d get to dramatically swoop in and say, “It is I, your secret admirer!” 

He had not expected that Will would recognize his handwriting, which was probably a mistake, given that they’ve been best friends since first grade. 

“God, Wheeler, you’re making me dizzy,” Max shouts from where she’s been sitting on his bed and attempting to give him advice for the past half hour. 

“I’m nervous!” 

“I can tell,” she grumbles. 

“What if he hates me?” he asks, “What if he never wants to see me again?” 

“You’re so dramatic. Didn’t he literally reply to you with the written equivalent of squealing?” 

Mike gets up and grabs the letter from his desk, shaking in the air, while he says, “Actually, the direct quote is, ‘I’ve never been good with words, but...’” 

“I’ve been in love with you forever,” Max finishes and rolls her eyes, “We all literally have this note memorized by now.” 

“Mike!” his mom shouts from downstairs, “The Byers are here!” 

“What do I do?” he hisses. 

“Just be yourself!” Max replies. 

He nods, turns around and immediately runs straight into his desk. 

“Never mind,” she groans. 

“Max!” 

“Alright, you’ve already done the hard part. I mean, all you have to do now is kiss him.” 

She pauses before adding, “Oh, and ask first, probably.” 

“Mike! Will is literally in the house right now!” Karen yells. 

“Coming!” he screams back and turns back towards Max, who gives him a thumbs up. Mike closes his eyes, braces himself and then runs down the stairs to where Will Byers himself is standing and grinning. 

They stare at each other for a moment before Will starts laughing and then, Mike is laughing. 

And then, he throws his arms around the boy he’s been half in love with since the first time he saw him and squeezes so tightly that Will lets out a muffled “I can’t breathe, Mike”. 

“Hi,” he says after pulling away. 

“You absolute idiot,” is the response he gets before Will Byers leans in and kisses him.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading!! hope you enjoyed. come visit me on tumblr!!! i'm @eraseyourbookofstories there too :D also, comments and kudos literally make my day, so if you liked it... love you, beautiful people <3


End file.
